Secret
by hexrexmess
Summary: Slash. Draco/Harry/Neville
1. Chapter 1

Harry watched the black dot move across the map. Draco Malfoy was climbing the steps up from the dungeon, as Harry was lying on his stomach in bed, illuminating the map with his wand. Malfoy was planning something sinister, but watching his name float around a map of the castle wasn't going to give Harry any answers.

A sudden spontaneity seized him and Harry pulled his invisibility cloak from beneath his pillow and crept out of the boys' dormitory. By the time he caught up with Malfoy and put away his map, he was walking down a deserted corridor on the third floor. This area of the castle seemed to be filled primarily with disused classrooms being used as storage. Harry, Rob and Hermione often spent time here in an empty classroom to study or talk, since other students rarely journeyed this direction.

At the end of the corridor, Malfoy turned left and opened a classroom door. Harry had to hurry to sneak in behind him before he closed the door. He was barely through when the door clicked shut. Harry tried to move further into the room and felt the cloak pull against him. A corner of the fabric was trapped in the door. Harry couldn't free it without risking being seen or heard, so he stood still.

"Well, well, Longbottom," Malfoy's voice softly echoed through the room, whose walls were lined with tables and chairs stacked so high, they could only be staying up by the force of some spell.

With all of the clutter, Harry hadn't noticed the other figure in the room. At the opposite end, Neville stood in his pajamas and slippers. Under the cloak, Harry quietly withdrew his wand, waiting to hex Malfoy before he could make his first move.

"Hello Draco," Neville's voice was calm and even, so unlike Neville in every way. He was no longer the small chubby boy he was in first year, when Draco stole his Remembrall. He'd grown nearly a full foot, thinned out and his features had matured. Yet Neville was still nervous and unsure, needing protection from bullies and teachers, which Harry gladly gave. But now, standing at the end of the classroom, alone with his biggest bully, Neville seemed like a different person. He stood tall, with no slouch and met Malfoy's eyes without fear.

Malfoy walked toward Neville. Harry, still confused, didn't move, more curious than worried for Neville's safety.

"Isn't it past your bedtime? I thought a Gryffindor would be keener on following curfew." Malfoy kept walking toward Neville.

"And why would you think that?" He smirked and kept his eyes locked on Malfoy.

"Because you Gryffindors are the good guys, yes? Now, Slytherins? We're the baddies. We can break all the rules we want."

"Only Slytherins break the rules? What do you think I'm doing?"

Malfoy was less than a foot from Neville. He reached out, grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him forward. When they kissed, Neville wrapped one arm around Malfoy's waist, grabbing his robes in his first. The other hand was in the other boy's long, white-blonde hair, delicately cradling the back of his head. Malfoy pushed Neville against the wall and slowly began to sink to his knees as Neville looked down at him, smiling. The two boys looked so at ease with one another. Harry, quiet and invisible, began to feel a pressure in his chest, like a cement block had just been dropped on it. Further down, he felt something entirely different, but equally strange.

Harry was still stuck next to the door. The room was only about twenty feet deep, but he was too far away to hear what Neville was frantically whispering to Malfoy, who was burrowed between his legs. Soon Neville went quiet, closed his eyes and gasped as a shudder went through his body. After a moment, he smiled. "Now it's my turn. " He helped the blonde boy to his feet and took Malfoy's previous position. Harry watched as Malfoy's mouth curled, not into a sneer, but a placid smile.

When Malfoy finished, Neville stood up and the two boys shared a slow, deep kiss. Neville brushed a lock of hair away from the boy's face. "Tell me when I can see you again.

"I will." Without saying goodbye, Malfoy turned and walked to the door.

Harry freed his cloak as the door opened and closed again, but he didn't move. The other Gryffindor stayed a few moments longer, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. When he left, he extinguished the two candles that had lit the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Harry alone and in the dark.

The next day at breakfast, Harry felt like someone had cast Muffliato on him. Ron and Hermione's voices hit his ears like a soft buzzing. Malfoy was sitting across the hall, lording over his cronies. The familiarity he had seen between Malfoy and Neville rankled him. He knew last night was not the first time they had been together. Neville walked into the Great Hall and sat across from Harry and Malfoy didn't even glance in his direction. Neville smiled at Harry, opened a book and began reading while eating his toast, crumbs falling onto the pages already littered with diagrams of leaves and flowers. Harry was familiar with secrets; people could carry them around for years, or their entire lives, hiding them from the people closest to them. But seeing these two hide something this well was confusing. Even more confusing was the feeling that Neville had somehow betrayed him, and maybe so had Malfoy.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione's brow furrowed as she took a drink from her tea cup and kept her eyes on him.

"What? Yeah." He looked away from Neville to meet Hermione's eyes. She continued to survey him over her cup.

"You look like you haven't slept." She kept her voice low, to Harry's appreciation. "I know you must be worried. You know you can talk to me."

"Some things I need to work through myself"

"I know this is your mission, but Dumbledore trusts us to help you."

Last night's discovery had driven his lessons with Dumbledore out of his mind. "Oh! Yeah, I know. I will. Yes."

Harry quickly finished his eggs and left the Great Hall at a fast walk. Harry leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He felt that same weight on his chest like a cement block. If he moved, he was sure his breakfast would spill out. A few minutes later, the other students started streaming out to head to classes.

"What's the matter, scar head?" Draco was flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, both chuckling. "Wondering when you'll be joining your mum and dad?" His minions laughed even harder.

Malfoy's taunting voice grew distant down the hall as Harry set his face and made his way toward class.

Harry was again in bed with the curtains drawn, the map open and illuminated by wandlight. It had been a week since he'd seen them together and every night since, he stayed awake hours later than the other boys, waiting for Neville to sneak out. Each night he had been disappointed, but still studied Malfoy's dot move around the castle. Some nights he couldn't find him and woke in the morning with the map clutched in his hands and his wand poking him in the ribs. He wasn't anymore optimistic tonight, but still he kept watch. Tonight, Malfoy's dot was moving slowly down a third floor corridor. He was alone. Harry's heart quickened just as he heard a rustle of bedsheets and the soft sound of feet hitting the wood of the floor.

Once again, Harry stalked the halls in his cloak, invisible a short distance behind his classmate. Neville walked fast, he was taller than Harry now, and his long legs took wide, hasty strides. At the end of the corridor, a door was ajar. Harry sped up to overpass the other boy and entered the room before Neville.

Inside, Malfoy sat at a desk, looking less haughty than usual, more subdued. Neville closed the door and Malfoy looked up, smiling coyly. He stood to meet Neville in the center of the room, a few strides away from Harry, who was pressed against the wall.

"I was starting to think I'd been stood up." Malfoy reached up to touch Neville's face, but Neville pushed his arm away.

"I probably should have."

"Why?" Malfoy looked indignant.

"What you said to Harry! That first year you hexed! Everything your mates do and say! How can you say that, after everything!"

"You know that's not who I am! That's just how they want me to be."

"Well, when are you going to stop doing what they want?!"

"You know what I'd be risking! What I have to do for them..." Malfoy's voice grew weak and distant.

"Neville still looked angry. "We can't be together if you never even act like you!"

"Together? We're not together. I am not your boyfriend. " Malfoy's retort was cold and quick and seemed to have taken Neville off. He opened and closed his mouth, then turned around and left.

Harry had turned to follow him out when he heard a stifled sob.


	2. Chapter 2

Five months ago.

Neville was sore, his wounds still healing. "You'd've made them proud." The first true compliment his grandmother had given him. Today, wandering the empty corridors, his back felt straighter, taller, despite the pain.

His pace slowed. A cacophony of shouts and crashing wood filtered into the hall from a classroom behind him. Ayear ago, Neville would have kept walking. The unknown was intimidating.

"Alohamora."

He peered in through the crack in the door. Someone in black robes was sat on the floor, his back to Neville.

"Are you alright?" The figure was surrounded by tables and chairs, a few still intact.

"No. I'm not." He lifted his head up from between his knees, revealing a sheet of long, white-blonde hair. This was the boy who only a few days ago held him captive for Umbridge, and today, had a father in Azkaban.

Nevile started to retreat. Draco was still facing the wall.

He paused. "I'm sorry about your father."

Now Draco turned his head. "No, you're not." He spat out the words but his shoulders were slumped.

"Well, no, I'm not. But I'm sorry for you."

"Sorry for me? How dare you!"

"You can accept my empathy, or you can continue sulking alone in here smashing furniture!" He'd cleared the doorway and ended the statement just below a shout. "Anyway, I guess I shouldn't have any pity for you after what you lot did to me and my friends. You and Umbridge's other minions!"

"Oh poor you! It was just a bit of fun!"

"A bit of fun? Haven't you seen what she's been doing to this school all year?"

"Instituting a bit of order? So what?"

"She's been carving into the back of students' hands all year!"

Draco frowned slightly, his eyebrows creased. "What, has your Potter mate been feeding you that line? You know he makes it all up for a bit of attention. Not that any attention from a bunch of Gryffindors is worth much."

"I must have had a momentary lapse in sanity to think you were capable of compassion, or any human emotion. Your father is a Death Eater, for Merlin's sake!"

"I'm not like him."

"It doesn't seem like it."

Turning his head as he left, Neville faked a pleasant smile. "Have fun smashing up the desks!"

The following day, Neville walked along the lake and watched as tentacles lazily brushed the top of the water.

The wind prickled against his cheek like a cold leather glove. The morning was slowly creeping across the grounds.

Neville had woken up early from a half-remembered dream. Pale skin like marble yet hot with passion. A veil had fallen yesterday and what was once a bully and what was once a bully and a monster was just the shallow mask worn by a lonely boy.

He had always liked boys, but never this boy. Now he couldn't stop wondering what he looked like under his robes. At least it was a pleasant distraction from the memories of the Ministry.

The tentacles in the lake suddenly splashed and sank into the blackness. A light mist speckled Neville's face as he closed his eyes and smiled.

"I thought I might find you here." Neville pushed the door open and stepped inside the same room he'd found Draco in yesterday.

"What do you want, Longbottom?" Draco was sat on a desk, slouching and lazily tossing bits of chalk in the air with his wand.

"Just some company." He closed the door behind him and strolled over to the desk. "Chocolate Frog?"

Draco paused, then gently took the proffered sweet. "Yeah, alright." Draco ripped the package open clumsily, allowing the frog to leap from his hands and onto his face before springing into the air again. Laughing, Neville dove forward and caught the frog in both hands. Smiling, he held his hands out to Draco and looked into his eyes. "Don't let it escape this time."

Draco held his gaze, slowly returning the smile. Still looking at Neville, he clasped his hands around the other boy's and felt the frog wriggle into his palm.

Neville laughed again and opened a frog of his own. The leaned against the desk, side by side, and bit the heads off their respective frogs, which then ceased trying to escape.

"Have you got anything else?"

"Anything else?"

"Any more sweets."

Neville tried to suppress a smile as he dug in his pockets. Soon a small pile had formed on the desk.

"Have you got a charm on your robes or something? Blimey, you pack a lot."

"I got a package from me Gran. She's been spoiling me since... Well, I can't eat it all myself, anyway."

Draco lifted himself up to sit on the edge of the desk. Neville followed, with the pile of sweets between them.

"These are my favorites!" Draco bit into a long pink taffy that stretched the length of his arm before snapping in half and curling back into his mouth like a party horn, whistling on its way in. Draco's lips curved into a warm, soft smile Neville had never seen before.

The two boys finished the pile in amiable silence.

"That's the last of it!" Draco drew a pale green handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his hands, then silently cleaned the handkerchief with his wand. He slid off the desk and turned back toward the door.

"Wait!" Neville jumped to the floor and stood in his way.

"Yes?"

"Just... This." All of his memories, their past together was like some horrible, half-forgotten dream. All that existed was this room, this moment, the tingling deep in his belly like something sleeping inside himself had just begun to wake up.

With a boldness he'd never felt before, Neville leaned forward and pressed his lips against Draco's, holding them there, waiting for the other boy to respond.

Draco parted his lips and breathed into Neville's mouth before tilting his head to kiss him back.


End file.
